by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

LONG POND, Pa. - They snapped selfies with wide smiles while leaning over the gargantuan bronzed trophy of an eagle awarded to the winner at Pocono Raceway.

They laughed while pushing brooms around victory lane and posing for photos with fans, family and track officials.

They goofed around in an upbeat postrace interview, playfully trading placards along with quips.

The impending split of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Steve Letarte essentially was cemented last Wednesday when Greg Ives was chosen by Hendrick Motorsports to lead the No. 88 Chevrolet next season.

But Earnhardt's win in the GoBowling.com 400, which completed his first season sweep of a track since Talladega Superspeedway 12 years ago, didn't have the vibe of a team whose crew chief carries a 15-race expiration date (Leterate will move to NBC Sports as an analyst next season).

Instead, the celebration was of a loose and confident crew that has rejuvenated the career of Earnhardt, who is enjoying his best season in a decade while "everything has been great. I got my professional life good, and the personal life's doing good."

But it starts with "performing well on Sunday is No. 1 in my life," and Earnhardt constantly credits the cohesiveness of a team that reflects the ebullience of Letarte.

"This group really enjoys each other," he said. "We all have a vested personal interest in each other to be better, and we want to help each other, and we want to see everybody happy.

"We all do that for each other, and I think the team clicks on all cylinders."

After firing at each other nonstop during a team-building paintball outing Saturday ("just a wee bit sore," Letarte said), the team turned its sights on the opposition at the 2.5-mile track where strategy is always critical.

That places a premium on the decision-making atop the pit box, and Letarte was on top of his game with tactical calls Sunday that helped move Earnhardt into second behind teammate Jeff Gordon, who led a race-high 63 laps.

"I got a lot of faith in Steve and the strategy that he used gave us the opportunity to get by some guys that we probably weren't going to pass on the racetrack," Earnhardt said.

Two more calls helped seal his third win of the season and 22nd of his career.

Halfway through a nine-lap caution, Letarte pitted Earnhardt for fuel and four tires on Lap 121 of 160. Four laps after the green flag flew again, Letarte brought the No. 88 back to the pits for its final stop.

The moves helped cycle Earnhardt ahead of Gordon, and it brought a satisfied fist-pump from Letarte, who had spent several laps formulating the strategy with engineer Kevin Meendering.

"Every once in awhile there's a moment in time that it all kind of became clear that, 'Man, we might have somewhat of a clue what we're doing,' " Letarte said. "And it was awesome. Then you just kind of sit back, and I'm really no different than you guys. I'm watching the race."

Earnhardt took it from there, snatching the lead from Greg Biffle with 14 laps left and then holding off a charge by Kevin Harvick on a restart with three laps remaining.

"Definitely the pressure's on that last restart, when you got Kevin lining up beside you," Earnhardt said. "I knew how confident Kevin was going to be going into turn one and I had to have that same confidence in my car."

He fell back on some of the qualities that Letarte has instilled in NASCAR's 11-time most popular driver, who has been calmer and more composed on the radio over the past four seasons.

When Letarte made an adjustment Sunday that left his car ill-handling for a few laps, Earnhardt managed it.

"When you're in the car and it's not working, you just bite your tongue trying not to be a fool on the radio," he said. "I think that 10 years ago I would have screamed, 'What the hell are you doing? But they're just trying to help get the car better. In years past I probably was a little bit immature about how I handled the situation. So I've grown up a lot.

"We got a great team, and Steve's done a good job getting us to this point. He runs the whole thing. So we're just going to keep trying to do a good job and win some more races."

This win will be remembered as an ideal bookend to Ives' introduction four days earlier.